Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? [Complete!]

Chapter 21: Fire in the Hole!

Chapter 21, Fire in the Hole!

After quickly packing up, everyone set out just as the sun was rising. Tom and Matt, at the head of the group, were engaged in some sort of argument over which element was better; fire or water. John wasn't paying much attention, but he did grin when Tom pointed out that water can put out fires, but fire can't put out water. Matt didn't seem to have a come back for this, so he settled for, "Well, fire's a way cooler element than water." To which Tom had responded with, "Well, technically fire isn't cool or cold at all, water is."

John tuned them out just as Matt started ranting about why they'd even brought Tom along. Except he couldn't help over hear Tom respond with, "I'm the one tracking the enemy, idiot," followed by an exasperated yell of frustration from Matt.

As the hours passed by, shadows began to lengthen and peek out from corners at the group. When the last of the sun's fingers faded from the sky, and the stars began to dance out, everyone was anxious.

"Tom, how close to do you think we are from them?" Jasper asked, carrying Marie, who had fallen asleep again.

Tom looked uneasy, "I don't understand it, and I've never been so off in timing before... I guess we'll just have to continue tomorrow..."

John wheeled around, "What do you mean you guess we'll have to continue tomorrow? We're running out of time here, Tom!"

"John stop yelling! It's not Tom's fault, they've probably put magical barriers around to interfere with anyone tracking them, it's amazing we've even made it this far!" Lindsay said, finally annoyed.

"She's right John, and even if they are farther away, so what? We can't kill ourselves trying to find them," Jessica said forcefully.

John sighed, troublesome people and their logic...

Half an hour later the moon was high in the sky, the only light they had other than the twinkling stars and the flicker of flames from the fire. Matt was going to have first watch again, but John said he'd take over since he couldn't sleep. Matt wasn't tired either, so they were arguing about who got to keep watch until Jasper threw his sleeping bag at them and yelled, "Oi! Some of us are trying to sleep, you can both keep watch! Just be quiet, geez!"

And so, here they were, an hour later, keeping watch until it was Jasper's turn. John wasn't sleepy, but he was bored. There was only so much time before Matt's flame pictures burnt out. Plus, Matt wasn't exactly the artistic type, so anything interesting rarely showed up.

"It's a bird!" Matt announced, as a simple bird popped up and vanished.

"Oh, now it's a plane!" Another image of a plane popped up on Matt's command.

John had long since tuned Matt out, and was sitting on a log with his head in his hands.

"...Wait, it's Johnny's hair on fire!"

John jumped up with a startled yelp as a mini display of fire works exploded in front of his face.

"That's it; I'll kill you, Matt!"

Matt had fallen off the log laughing, "You should have seen your face!"

"Well, when I'm done with you, you won't have a face!" John yelled back, glaring at Matt, who batted his eye lashes innocently in a pathetic attempt at looking cute.

"You're pathetic; you'd die way before anyone thought that was cute..." John said, still glaring at Matt.

"I thought it was cute."

The boys both leapt up and shrieked, hugging each other like in some cartoon.

Lindsay grinned and high-fived Marie.